How to reduce your Digital Footprint
Today we are surrounded by devices and apps making our life easy. There are several devices and apps we use every day without thinking about the causes and effects. We are so much dependent on them that we cannot think of a day without them.
But, the one thing we care less about is our data and privacy. The devices and apps we use are created to track our behavior, whether it's about what we see, hear, buy, sell, places we visit, and much more. These data can be used for better user experience, advertising, invading privacy, and identity theft.
To prevent or minimize the effects we can follow some simple steps and we will be leaving many little breadcrumbs of our data for people looking for it. In simple words one can do is close/delete unused accounts/apps to decrease the potential for data or privacy breach.
Some of the steps we can follow are:
1. Delete App you don't use - Check the list of applications on your smartphone, PC, Laptops, Tablets, and Delete Apps you don't use anymore. Especially the Apps with free accounts as these are designed for data collection.
2. Close Accounts you don't use - Make a list of accounts you have across various apps and websites and start closing/unsubscribing from them. It may take maybe a couple of hours, but in the end, you will be thankful that you did it.
3. Check Third-Party Apps - For the ease of login with social media accounts, one doesn't need to remember the credentials. But, we provide the apps with permissions to our data which is not good for our privacy.
4. Remove Browser extensions - We have installed some extensions on Chrome, Firefox, or other Browsers that help us, but again, they can breach our data.
5. Reset devices, not in use - If you have old devices with your account logged in, it may increase the chances of data theft.
6. Use Incognito modes in browser for browsing. Mainly while shopping online, or searching for a product.
The Benefits:
At first, you may not feel the benefits. But, after a couple of weeks, you will find these changes in your life
- The first thing you will notice is the frequency of Mobile notification decrease drastically, which also decrease distractions
- You will receive way fewer emails, basically spams
- Only Useful SMS, as they are more costly than other alternatives
- Low marketing and spam calls
- All this will help you save time and minimize distraction from work or your free time
I have done the same and I have seen the changes. You must try it too.